I have $500 to blow on a new PC and I like to game quite a bit, but nothing extreme.

I am looking for something that is capable of 30-40 FPS (stable) on games like starcraft 2, or diablo 3 around medium-high settings, it would be an added bonus to be able to play game(s) such as planetside 2.

Peripherals? Monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers/headphones.Storage? Any hard drives to carry over, or optical drives.Case? If you have a case that will work, even if it's not ideal, that could open up budget room as well.

Now having said that, if you have an OS and Case, that could save some cash, also a good 2nd hand cpu/mobo combo with some faster ddr3 and updated GPU could bring you under the 500 mark while having something that can push some game.

Option 1 would be to pick up a refurbished or scratched and dented Inspiron 660 from the Dell Outlet store or a similar used Core i5 based PC coming off a business lease somewhere, then add your own graphics card (e.g.: Radeon HD7790) purchased from Newegg or Amazon.

Perhaps start with Ars Technica's Bargain Box, then add a better processor and a graphics card from Tech Report's Econobox.

Using the prices in both guides, if you remove the monitor, mouse, keyboard and speakers (which you already have) and the CPU and motherboard from the Bargain Box, and add the CPU, motherboard and graphics card from the Econobox, the total would be $ 535.

Hi. Let's see what we can come up with for $500 (or less!). Given your budget I have to kindly/gently point out that you obviously can't expect killer performance from it. It's like saying you have a $15,000 budget for a new car and expect tons of luxury features and sub-5.0 second 0-60 run times. That's unrealistic unless you're ok with 'Pre-Owned'. Anyway, I've gathered up some prices from TigerDirect. They're just for reference, of course. You're free to get them from any store of your choosing.

Now I know you're looking for a PC that can play your games at max settings but please do understand that you're going to need a strong CPU and perhaps an even stronger GPU to back it up. And even a midrange GPU can easily go beyond $200, which will obviously blow your budget. For $500 I think we'd need to tone down our expectations and demands just a little bit. Anyway, the A8-5600K is not your top-model APU but for gaming but it may give you some respectable frame rates. If you go with the A8 setup without the HD7750 discrete graphics it'll only cost you $400. Throw in the HD7750 and it goes up to $495. Note, however, that putting in an HD7750 renders the A8's GPU useless because you can't Crossfire the two so you might wanna look at some of AMD's comparable FX chips and the associated AM3+ mobos out there. Going with the Intel option you obviously don't want to play games on the Pentium's IGP, so you will need the HD7750. Total for the Intel setup would be... let me se... $495 as well. Is this a price war or what!

Personally, I like AMD, and the A8 option obviously trims your costs down to an even lower $400. I personally might go with it because I'm not the gamer that I used to be but given your goals with this build perhaps you have no choice but to get a discrete graphics card such as the HD7750, or maybe something better.

As you get older, you don't lose your friends.. you just find out who the real ones are.

JustAnEngineer wrote:Option 1 would be to pick up a refurbished or scratched and dented Inspiron 660 from the Dell Outlet store or a similar used Core i5 based PC coming off a business lease somewhere, then add your own graphics card (e.g.: Radeon HD7790) purchased from Newegg or Amazon.

If you want to play BF3 at 40FPS, this is about the only way to go. You need an i5 (real quad core) or better, and 3.0GHz or faster; an AMD 'budget' option isn't an option.

thank you for all the advice, it has been quite helpful, I have done quite a bit of research on what would be good or not, and I believe I will just build something slightly better than my current machine, and upgrade as I go.

DPete27 is right. I am running an FX-8350 right now and, although I find the performance adequate, I have to be honest here and echo what everyone knows: The i3 can probably offer better gaming performance in less threaded games plus offer an upgrade path to an i5 or i7.

Here's a video that goes against common belief though. Not sure it's legit but it sure goes against the tide. It obviously talks about higher end CPUs but it contests the belief that Intel chips are better for gaming. I have to assume the games he tests are highly threaded.

As you get older, you don't lose your friends.. you just find out who the real ones are.

Something no one has pointed out, that's very important- current AMD CPU's only have 'half' cores! That 'Quad-core' FX-4000-series CPU actually only has two modules, each of which is significantly slower than a 'core' in an Intel CPU. AMD's 'modules' are approximately equivalent to a single Intel core with hyper-threading enabled; so that CPU is very much like an Intel i3 with two cores and four threads, except it's slower.

Here's my suggestion to rethink your priorities:1. Get a quad-core Intel CPU, however you can; Microcenter/Fry's sales, Dell outlet, whatever2. Get a decent GPU, but this is irrelevant without the CPU; make sure it has 2GB of RAM if you can3. Get 8GB of RAM, 4GB has become a limiting factor for current games4. If you're building, don't skimp on the quality of the CPU- You won't even get close to 400W, 250W is more like it5. Storage doesn't matter much- just don't get a 'Green' drive

I'm thinking, if you're really shooting for great gaming performance but are only willing to spend $500 (today), why not just buy 'partial' for now? You know, you could grab a Core i5 for $185, a good LGA1150 board such as this one for $80, 4GB of DDR3-1600, and the rest, except the video card. Will probably cost you just a little over $500. Then you can just add a proper video card and more RAM later when finances permit. This is what one of my friends did. He was also budget-constrained.

As you get older, you don't lose your friends.. you just find out who the real ones are.

Given your resolution you'll be fine with an upper mid-range graphics card. I would normally push for a 2GB card these days just for some longevity but your monitor resolution isn't high. But unless someone can say 100% for sure that 2GB of memory would be beneficial for textures or something which isn't going to be affected by resolution, this deal is unbeatable for the price:

I recommend you ORDER THIS NOW - the MIR expires tomorrow - and before it sells out, the promo code expires, or whatever. This card is competitive with the $150+ GTX 650 Ti Boost as long as the 1GB vs 2GB memory doesn't come into play.

You can carry over your OS, so that puts us at $125 or $150 so far depending on which case you got (net price - assuming you can float the cash for the MIRs)

Last edited by MadManOriginal on Sat Aug 10, 2013 12:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Note that you need to add the combinations to your shopping cart. You won't get the combination discount if you add the items separately. The promotional codes must be entered at the bottom of the shopping cart form to get those discounts.

JustAnEngineer wrote:Note that you need to add the combinations to your shopping cart. You won't get the combination discount if you add the items separately. The promotional codes must be entered at the bottom of the shopping cart form to get those discounts.

Thats what I have done, I just c & p'd them one at a time here from the shopping cart, all the promo codes are applied.

MadManOriginal wrote:Note to self: next time building a system, just put up some requirements and wait for JAE_shopping_bot to find the best prices and options.

Steps for shopping:Step 1: Calm down.Step 2: Remove head from ***.Step 3: Put everything in the cart.Step 4: Wait a day, and check prices everywhere.Step 5: Put your best up on the forum.Step 6: Be humiliated by JAE.Step 7: Get over it and thank him for saving you money.Step 8: Get it done.Step 9: Post pictures!

Still haven't said if you live near a MicrocenterYou don't have an optical drive in your existing rig? If so, reuse it (unless you need a DVD burner) Optical media is dead.RAM - get DDR3 1600 CAS 9 @ 1.5V. Its cheaper and faster.GPU - Back to the 7750? GET THE 7850 THAT MYSELF AND OTHERS HAVE SUGGESTED. It costs the same as the 7750 you listed, but offers twice the performance. (link re-posted here)

You realize that words/phrases that are blue and underlined in these posts are hyperlinks that we are giving you to products? They're not bogus pop-up links.

Ronch may be onto something, gaming hardware doesn't age like it used to so it may make more sense to buy certain good components now (CPU/board/RAM/) and then get other good components later (GPU/PSU/case) as finance allows. Or save up a little bit more and get better specs all in one go. The reason I say that is due to the great specs slowdown whatever you get is likely to last a very long time provided it's decent.

If I was in your shoes I'd shoot for an i5 quad, basic mATX board, 8GB RAM, Radeon 7850 or Geforce 650ti, 1TB 7200rpm mechanical drive, and reuse your case/PSU/DVD/peripherals unless you plan to do something else with them.